Hi everyone. My family and I are looking to sell our family home, but we have some major issues with the house and would like advice on how to go about this.
So, the house is around 40 years old. My grandmother originally bought it. Growing up, my family has always been poor. My grandmother made decent money but wasn’t a good spender. Due to this, the house has racked up in numerous issues. However, she was able to pay the house off. My grandmother passed away a few years ago and we basically had been squatting in it. My mother paid property taxes on it and now she is a co-owner, so we are finally able to sell the home.
Now, the issues are- we have some water damage. The pipes are mostly working, except for the kitchen sink. Every other pipe is good. Some of the walls have water damage. We do have some electrical issues with some of our outlets not working.
However, our major issue is that we have a German roach infestation. Which is something hard to admit. I know the question is, “why on earth would you stay in a roach infested house?” It was between that or homelessness, honestly. My grandmother died when my sibling and I were still minors and my mother was mentally unstable. Now, we are all doing better. We are all making maybe a combined income of 75k a year. Which isn’t horrible for the area I live in.
Now, our next decision is selling our home. We have never done this before. We don’t know the process or anything. We want to at least do some patchwork and cleaning before we sell. Hopefully, mitigate the roach problem.
FWIW, our home is worth around 300k. I’m not entirely sure what renovation cost would entail. We don’t obviously expect 300k handed to us or anything. We’re hoping for maybe around 100k-150k. We don’t think repairs would be 2/3 of the cost but maybe half of it? I’ve thought about reaching out to one of those “we buy homes in any condition.”, but I would like advice before I do.
Also, I’ve heard about curb appeal- we have a damaged shed on the property with no door and broken windows. Do we try to get rid of this or focus on everything else? Our gutters need to be cleaned. We have a bunch of wood in the yard and we would need to just do a lot of cleaning. I think my mother would be able to get a dumpster out here.
If anyone has any questions about the repairs, please ask. I would like advice on how to approach this in the best way possible.
First time selling family home. It has major issues, how do we go about this?
byu/Dramatic_Ask7315 inRealEstate
Posted by Dramatic_Ask7315
12 Comments
Start with getting a pest control company out to give a quote on the roaches. Open up every wall where there has been water damage and see what’s going on inside.
Call one of those “we sell ugly houses” people and see what they offer (be careful, they will try and walk back any money they offer). Call a couple of real estate agents and get them to come an have a look and give you an idea of what you could get selling it as-is.
Then you have info to sit down and make decisions.
It’s likely at least worth your while now to do all the things that you can do yourselves, even if just basic maintenance. Clean your gutters. Remove those broken windows.
Where are you all going if you aren’tliving there? Sometimes a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
I wouldn’t put any money into honestly except maybe exterminator. Just list it as is and let them know of the issues.
The new owners are likely gonna do what they want to do and wiring issues in an older house can be expensive.
The house can still be sold at least in my state if it doesn’t pass an inspection.
Also where are you getting the 300k value from? The tax asset your mom paid?
I’d suggest listening to some videos and advice from Kati Spaniak. She’s got some really good insight into how to prep a house to sell, and she has a free workbook pdf where you can score different aspects of your property to see what category it falls into. Based on the category its in, she offers some great advice on what to fix before selling, what not to fix, what to do if you’re considering doing a FSBO or “as-is” sale. I signed up to access her free workbook a couple months back and can confirm that she does not bombard people’s email inboxes with marketing crap.
Focus on the house not the shed. People will take sheds away for free for scrap wood, post they on FB.
Water damage will scare any buyer, so will not working plumbing. The house should work right and be safe, so addressing potential mold issues and pipe issues would be # 1. A fresh coat of paint should do, and offer to fumigate the house to any potential buyer for the roach problem. Get a bid from an exterminator and use that information with any potential buyer. Every thing else you pay into the house will not return on investment.
If your looking to wholesale the house then maybe you can find someone who will lowball you on price but take the house as is without you doing anything.
If you want to list the house on the market to maximize returns then do what I said above
At a minimum, you need to get rid of the roaches and clean up the property before you sell it.
I would not sell to one of those, “We buy homes…” people. You will get far less than it is worth.
In terms of fixing all of the other items, talk to a contractor about what it would cost to fix it. Or ask a Realtor. The Realtor won’t know, but they will know a contractor who can then tell you the costs. At that point, you can decide whether you want to fix it and get a higher sale price, or leave it alone and get a lower sale price. You might be able to negotiate with someone that they will fix it for a small amount upfront and get paid the balance at closing.
Usually, you are betting off fixing it and selling it in move-in condition, then trying to sell it as-is.
Good luck.
We had a mobile home on the lake in a similar situation. We did use a “we buy ugly homes” and got $180K on a $350K renovated lake home. We didn’t do any work and they took it as is. I would shop around on the buyers as they will try to low ball. I was offered as low as $100K and finally got someone at the $180K. It took me 2-3 months to find a buyer. Ask for references. Our was a third party who actually had investor lined up so that shopped it to their investors. I was more concerned that the investor would not come up with funding so I contacted the mortgage company and they verified all items were in place. It is NOT a fun process, but you can make it happen. If you get no offers or too low from these companies, then start worrying about fixing it up. If you’re only looking to get $100K-$150K and others around you appraise at $300K there is enough meat on that bone for someone to fix it up and flip. What part of the US are you in?
Where are you going to go live?
If the house is paid off and there is income coming in…fix your home!
Call a plumber, an electrician, a carpenter, and an exterminator. Get 2-3 detailed quotes for everything.
You can fix and stay. You can fix and sell. Or fix nothing and sell for cheap.
A local realtor can help. They will have a list of preferred vendors.
Good luck!
Do not call those cash for homes places. They will screw you over. Call around and get a real estate agent that specializes in rehabbed homes. Do not put any money into the houses. The rehab agent will help you list and market to real estate investors. You will get way more than those cash for homes. Flippers and real estate agents will buy you home for more than those clowns. Price appropriately and the house will sell. Flippers don’t care about condition if the margins are good.
This is an investors dream.
Take the easy way out. Find a Realtor who deals with cash investors and have them shop it and negotiate for a small fee, like 1%. Im a Realtor and I do these all the time. Investors will give me a few thousand referral or they have me list the flip when its done.
You get cash and do not have to deal with anything.
Often in the end you are not getting anywhere near dollar to dollar back on starting to deal with all of these issues. Unless you completely gut the home and remodel top to bottom… which if you have experience great, of you dont, just dont.
I would suggest interviewing the most and best experienced Realtors in your area. They can walk the home and give you all the advice, recomendations to trades and pest companies ECT. They can give you the truth on what it would take to get this home into saleable condition based on your circumstances. If condtion is to far gone for financing then they should tell you that upfront. (Make sure you hire a good one) If you call a flipper or ugly house people be prepared to receive low offers 25%-50% below fair market value they are in it for profitability. Sometimes this is the easiest path but you will only know if you reach out to those who specialize in this stuff. Best of luck!
V/R
John King
Sell as-is. Then you don’t have to fix anything.